They’re a bit boring, being highly similar to the myriad Microtus and Myodes/Clethrionomys species that make up the bulk of vole diversity.

Red-backed mice, genus Clethrionomys, occur throughout the Rocky Mountains and west to the Cascades in Washington as the species C. gapperi.

The general proportions of the stalk and the relatively large, uniquely shaped processes, are characteristic of most specimens of the genus Clethrionomys examined.